I want to begin to homeschool my daughter.?

Question

My daughter is currently in 6th grade. She has become quite the rebel and is taking no interest in school work at all. She is making Ds and Fs and she doesnt seem to be worried about the outcome. Where do I begin? Do I begin? Should I start now or wait till 7th grade......if she makes it that far.
She is a bright kid. Peer pressure has overwhelmed her and she is more interested in Friends than school. I realize this is normal but she has no balance with the two. her computer had been shut down.....she WAS a MySpace junkie, her t.v. is now in my room as well her stereo. And her cell phone i sonly given to her when I leave the house to go to the gym.
Thanks for your help...........

Answer 1

okay I am a freshman and my mom home schooles me.In eight grade i had all d's and f's and i was just terrible, my friends, my grades, my behavior. Finally my mom stepped up and is makeing me homeschool, I go to this place called the Morning Star Academy, and it really is a great school. It is credited, you can check her grades at all time, its online (so they teach her), its really fun too! there is this thing called the "social center" and it is basically a chat room, but cautiosally monitered. If you say a bad word you get suspended from the social center for 3 days,. but it you use it appropraitally its a great way for your daughter to communicate with fellow homeschoolers. I love my school, and the really really ausome thing is, i can go as far ahead as i want, and vice versa (except in order to continue a semester you have to finish the one that you are on) meaning that you will not get left behind. There is a place for you to sign in as the parent to check out her grades, what she is learning and everything! also, there is a live chat program, but it is real teachers on the other end, (to help you do school work) I am serious, my gpa is about a 3.8, it was a 1.5 in 8th grade, and now I am very proud to tell people my grades, here is the link to morning star academy,

http://www.themorningstaracademy.org/demo/

♥ good luck!

Answer 2

to build on Cassandra's answer. I was "unschooled" which is mostly the same as homeschooling. the difference is that you study what you want to study and as long as you pass the state end of year test you are fine. now I am 17 and I started college at 16 (community college). I have a 4.0 GPA and have better grades than most high school grads (in the college). I have lots of Friends. and I have no social problems at all. the people who say that home schooled kids are unsocial have no idea what they are talking about. homeschooling is better because you learn faster, you are more in the real world than in a class room. (the way my family did home schooling was we spent more time in museums, planetariums, science museums, gardens, and any place that we could possibly learn something new. for the last 2-3 years I have spent more time in a kitchen (at home, church, 4-H, any where someone needed a cook) because I want to be a chef. I will soon be going to a 4 year culinary college that is in the top 10 of the nation.

there are lots of websites to help with home schooling.
look for "the well trained mind", and rainbow resource center.

Answer 3

Talk with the parent who homeschooled you, for starters. Be ready for stress. Network. Find other homeschooling parents in the area so that your daughter will have some friends with a common scholastic situation; social skills start to develop in the early years of school. Make sure that your daughter gets plenty of playtime, but schedule it so that you don't have too much trouble with wanting to play or sleep during schooltime.

Answer 4

My mom homeschooled all of us for the same reason. We live in Oklahoma. Find out about your state's laws, and DON"T ask the school about it. They get money for each child enrolled, and they will not be helpful whatsoever, and will more than likely be condascending towards your choice of homeschooling. Do the research on your own, there are a lot of websites you can Google to help you with homeschooling. You can either order books, CD Roms to work on the computer, or both. If you're Christian (we're not) there are a lot of homeschooling programs geared towards that theme. Contact your local truancy officer too, because after you pull her out of school and start the homeschooling, they might think she's skipping (this happened to my mom twice). Just be sure you have her homeschooling kit ready before you pull her out so you don't have this problem, you'll need proof she's being schooled at home. Most kits cost around $400 for each year depending on what program you use. Hope this helps.

By the way, ignore the people telling you not to homeschool. All of them have issues with their own kids and think they should tell you what to do with your own (as in the guy Robert who posted a stupid comment right below me). We did fine with homeschooling, and all of us hold well paying, steady jobs in health care.

Answer 5

I pulled my younger daughter out of middle school in 8th Grade after her older sisters friends had shaved most of her head and given her a "devil lock". She started acting out at school after that and did some graffiti and was caught. That was in November. I was new to homeschool. I got materials at
www.backpack.com . I got math workbooks and other materials. Fortunately,what my daughter wanted was to take her work and go do it. Her father has a history degree and he struggled to give her lessons. She was "Miss Attitude" at the time. Someone told me where to get the test they do state wide and we did that. From November to Spring she had gone ahead three grade levels in math.

The next year she went back to High School. She always played in the orchestra and missed that. It was a new school. Her hair had grown back. Things went fine.

Is there another school your daughter could go to? The down side of home schooling, is that if your daughter needs teaching and you are the only one to do it, it creates even more friction at an age where there's likely too much already. You could try tutors, too. My daughter wanted out of school so badly. She was driven to do well in homeschooling.

You know your daughter best, so consider before you act. Then do what's right!

Answer 6

If she's bright, consider unschooling. Children often need a period of detoxing from the structured learning of school.

We've unschooled our kids since the beginning, and they passionately pursue their interests, learning deeply, more deeply than I did even in college.

Most states allow you to take your child out of school and begin schooling her. Check google with your state and homeschooling.

Also, google John Taylor Gatto and read his amazing analysis of school. He was NYC's teacher of the year and makes a persuasive case that school is for teaching kids their place, arresting their curiousity, and making them good consumers and workers.

I Think taking away her media is a great way to help her detox, too. Too many unschoolers think unschooling is unparenting and advocate unrestricted media use. That's as misguided as letting your kids decide how much cocaine to use.

Good luck! Don't wait any longer - her curiosity and self-esteem and individuality are in the balance.

Answer 7

go for it. but put your foot down and lay down the law tell her enough with the rebel phase and its time to smarten up and be good and study good and work her hardest and try her best. but if that doesnt help then i would tell her not to hang around with her friends anymore because half of the time of a child failing in school is half because of the crowds they hang with and dont concentrate. and homeschooling i consider a good option especially todays school districts, violence, and security. i would do it for my childs wellbeing and protection.

Answer 8

First of all I would like to say that I was for the most part Home schooled. It was great must of the time but my mom tryed 3 time putting me to school it never really worked out because not only did the student think it was free pass to bully me but the most repercussion was from the teacher trying to challenge my intellect.
Now on your daughter try talking to her see if maybe it's a teacher who's giving her a hard time or another student, if that doesn't work try asking her teacher.
Next if you are really determined to home school her note it wont be easy at all if she doesn't want to cooperate.
how to get started first contact your school district send them a letter saying your intent for homeschooling.
then they will send you package.
You'll have to search for book company to order, on average my mom would spend $600 for annually book material.
Every quarterly (3 months) you'll have to fill out forms for the district letting them know what your teaching.
every year she has to take a exam to pass the school year. I hope that helps you!

Answer 9

It sounds like your daughter is bored with school. You say she is bright so she probably isn't interested at all in the curriculum in the school. It actually sounds like school is holding her back. I am not a big advocate of homeschooling but in this case, it may save your daughter.

Answer 10

My understanding is its not legal in every state, so I would start by finding out if it is allowed in your state. There are support groups out there for parents who want to home school, so I would suggest finding one of those and looking into your state's curriculm to make sure your daughter still learns all the same things so that she will be properly prepaired for highschool or college.